[quote=Dinh AaronMk]
I'm only sitting here wondering if Mortalbean's commentary on the start of the First World War is either political commentary he's absorbed on the topic, or is some incomplete and incorrect version of it. Because that's certainly not how I know it.
[/quote]

You mean the assassination of Frans Ferdinand and the Black Hand and all that? That stuff is simply the match that set off the powder keg. There is more to the start of WW1 than just an Austrian getting shot. Right now there is a pretty damn good series of videos being produced called The Great War on YT about WW1 that are following WW1 week by week exactly 100 years later. They are produced by some television channel in Europe and are pretty "fair and balanced". They are a great introduction to the topic of WW1 and include a series specifically focused on pre-WW1 politics.